Agenda item

To consider the following motions:

 

·  Tackling flytipping in Southwark

·  Stand up for local pharmacies

·  Saving Southwark’s community pharmacies

·  Make fair transitional state pension arrangements for 1950's women

·  The Bus Services Bill motion

MOTION 1 - STAND UP FOR LOCAL PHARMACIES (See pages 20 - 21 of the main agenda and tabled Amendment F)

 

Amendment F to this motion was agreed as per the programme motion.

 

This motion was considered prior to the guillotine having fallen.

 

Councillor Eleanor Kerslake, seconded by Councillor David Noakes, moved the motion.

 

Following debate (Councillor Evelyn Akoto), the motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

 

Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the cabinet for consideration

 

1.  Council assembly notes that Department of Health has announced it is pushing forward with dramatic cuts of £170 million to the funding of community pharmacies in England this year and that it has not ruled out more cuts to follow.

 

2.  Council assembly notes that this funding cut could result in 3,000 pharmacies (a quarter of all pharmacies) closing across the country. In Southwark, 18 pharmacies could be at risk of closing.

 

3.  Council assembly believes that the government's plans threaten patient access to pharmacies and pharmacy services in Southwark. Our local pharmacies are at risk of closure or being forced to cut services such as free delivery of prescription drugs, family planning advice and advice on medicines. This will put more pressure on GPs and hospitals and impact social services and is at odds with the local Clinical Commissioning Group's desire to increase the use of pharmacists to ease pressure on GPs.

 

4.  Council assembly notes that the Local Government Association (LGA) has criticised the Department of Health for overlooking the role of community pharmacy as a 'much needed social and economic asset' and warned of ‘unintended consequences’ that will impact elsewhere in the local community.

 

5.  Council assembly therefore calls on the Government to abandon these cuts and maintain a fully-funded community pharmacy service and asks the cabinet member for public health, parks and leisure to write to the Secretary of State for Health, NHS England and Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group expressing this view.

 

6.  Council assembly also asks the cabinet member for public health, parks and leisure write to the borough’s three Members of Parliament asking them to make similar representations on this matter to the Secretary of State for Health.

 

At this point, Councillor Adele Morris raised a procedural motion to delay the guillotine for 30 minutes.  This was seconded by Councillor Anood Al-Samerai.

 

The motion was put to the vote and declared to be lost.

 

MOTION 2 - TACKLING FLYTIPPING IN SOUTHWARK (See page 20 of the main agenda)

 

This motion was considered prior to the guillotine having fallen.

 

Councillor Rosie Shimell moved the motion.

 

Following debate, at 10.02pm the Mayor announced that the guillotine had fallen.

 

The guillotine haven fallen, Amendment B was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

 

Amendment C was put to the vote and declared to be lost.

 

Amendment D was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

 

The motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

 

Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the cabinet for consideration

 

1.  Council assembly notes that:

 

·  Southwark Council proactively collects fly-tips and records these alongside fly-tips reported by the public, which leads to Southwark having a higher recorded rate of flytipping than other boroughs, who do not record data in this way;

 

·  The council introduced a £16 flat-rate charge for the collection of up to 10 items of bulky waste last year, as part of £30m in budget savings across council services;

 

·  Over the last 5 years, Southwark Council has had to make savings of over £156m, equivalent to a third of the council’s budget, because of cuts from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative governments, and this year the council has to make a further £26.5m savings;

 

·  2015/16 data for local authorities has not yet been published, so there is no comparative data available since the introduction of Southwark’s bulky waste charge.

 

2.  Council assembly calls on the cabinet to:

 

·  continue to monitor flytipping in Southwark

 

·  continue to take proactive steps to reduce incidences of people illegally dumping items in our borough

 

·  publish the number of flytipping incidents which are cleared by council staff, as well the number of incidents reported by the public.

 

MOTION 3 - MAKE FAIR TRANSITIONAL STATE PENSION ARRANGEMENTS FOR 1950's WOMEN (see page 22 of the main agenda)

 

This motion was considered prior to the guillotine having fallen.

 

Councillor Stephanie Cryan, seconded by Councillor Jasmine Ali, moved the motion.

 

The motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

 

Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the cabinet for consideration

 

1.  Council assembly calls on the government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after 6 April 1951, who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification.

 

2.  Council assembly notes that:

 

·  Hundreds of thousands of women had significant pension changes imposed on them by the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011 with little or no personal notification of the changes. Some women had only two years notice of a six-year increase to their state pension age.

 

·  Many women born in the 1950s are living in hardship. Retirement plans have been shattered with devastating consequences. Many of these women are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace so struggle to find employment.

 

·  Women born in this decade are suffering financially. These women have worked hard, raised families and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when reaching 60.

 

·  It is not the pension age itself that is in dispute - it is widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time. The issue is that the rise in the women's state pension age has been too rapid and has happened without sufficient notice being given to the women affected, leaving women with no time to make alternative arrangements.

 

3.  Council assembly calls on the government to reconsider transitional arrangements for women born on or after 6 April 1951, so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about until it was too late to make alternative arrangements.